How many more times will the big parties lose an election?

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On the 28th November 2012, Agora presented a discussion on the electoral struggles of the Czech Republic’s main political parties.

About the debate:

The latest regional elections and the origins of widened support for the Communist party were discussed in Agora’s recent debate on Czech democracy. The organisers asked, whether the Communists should be allowed to join the government in order to take their share of national responsibility and as such also end up getting discredited themselves? This was not deemed to be a constructive approach. The panel didn’t see the Communist party as being a strong party, it believed rather that the other parties were simply becoming weaker and weaker and concluded that the interpretation of the election results as being a Communist success was, therefore, rather misleading.

The speakers felt instead that biggest problem for the Czech Republic’s democratic political parties was their own inactivity and the failure of centre right formations. Czech society does, however, not yet appear to have given up hope of a democratic future and is showing signs of being open to continued democratic governance. The guest speaker from the Netherlands in fact claimed: “Wait four years and the big parties will recover their majorities. This is the case in the Netherlands where a two party system helps support an environment conducive to corruption.”.

Is it a time for changes to the electoral system? “The best time for making changes is after an electoral defeat. The problem lies in the small number of party members, the strength of the regions and the weakness of central party bodies.”. Maybe the best way to resolve the situation is, therefore, through broadening the scope of civic participation.

Participants:

Speakers:

Jan Hartl – Director of STEM (Centre for Empirical Research), Expert Analyst specialising in public opinion polls and political prognoses

Lukáš Jelínek – Political Scientist at the Masaryk Democratic Academy, Advisor to Representatives of Social Democratic Party

Josef Mlejnek – Political Scientist, teaching at the Faculty of Social Sciences – Charles University, Prague

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